Personal journal dealing mainly with music listened to, plus various food and wine matters. Rants at a few favourite topics.

Friday, 9 March 2018

Russians Play Russian

The Russians are famous
for composing first-class music, as well as for churning out
generations of first-class musicians (especially pianists and
violinists). They are not famous for their recording technology of
generations ago, so I approached a disc of “Russian Treasures”
recorded during the dark years of 1948 and 1957 with considerable
trepidation. I was pleasantly surprised; the original tapes came from
Moscow Radio (not the studios of Melodya) and the tapes were
processed by the Czech company Multisonic in 1993. Even given the
age of the original performances, the results made pleasant
listening. Composers were all Russian: Glinka (Sestetto), Borodin
(Grand Trio) and Tchaikovsky (String Sextet).

The Russians often
have a bad press (especially by the paranoid Americans); sometimes
deservedly, more often, not. Politics aside, the Russian artists
playing Glinka, Borodin and Tchaikovsky would be hard to beat: Leonid
Kogan, Elizabeta Gilels, Dmitry Tsyganov, Vasily Shirinksy, Sergei
Shirinsky, Mstislav Rostropovich, Rudolf Barshai ... and others. Very
much Golden Age performances of this music. I'll keep the CD to hand
for re-playing whenever I need reminding there is still superb music
making to be had at the touch of a button. The Russians in Russian
music are still hard to beat. I am still waiting for a really good transfer of the famous 1952 recording of Tchaikovsky's opus 50 piano trio with Gilels, Kogan and Rostropovich.